The senior Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI), says he has information the suspect in the apparent thwarted Christmas Day terrorism attempt may have had contact with Anwar al-Awlaki [2], the Yemen-based radical imam with ties to the suspect in the Fort Hood shootings. The incident on Northwest Airlines flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit "definitely appears to be al-Qaeda-related," King said. "This was not a firecracker. This was for real." (Bloomberg [3], Dec. 26)
Anwar al-Awlaki was initially said to have been possibly killed in government air-strikes in Shabwa, Yemen, Dec. 24. But a friend of the cleric, Abu Bakr al Awlaki (of the same clan but not the same family), denied this, as did local tribal chiefs. (AP [4], Dec. 26)
See our last posts on Yemen and al-Qaeda [5].
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